JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville malpractice attorney announced updates in two pending lawsuits against the national cosmetic surgery chain Sono Bello.
Seth Pajcic with the Pajcic & Pajcic law firm is representing the clients in these cases.
Pajcic said that in both cases, two women received surgeries at Sono Bello’s Jacksonville location. Both surgeries, according to Pajcic, resulted in complications that led to one woman being disfigured permanently and the other woman losing her life.
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According to Pajcic, Cynthia “Cindy” Burgess went to Sono Bello in May of this year with the hope that liposuction and AbEX surgery would help with her prediabetes. She got an infection from the surgery and died in July as a result of complications from it, according to Pajcic. Cindy’s husband Robert was present during the news conference and said he knew something was wrong with his wife immediately after the surgery.
“My family is devastated by this,” said Robert Burgess. “I’m in as much pain right now as I was 73 days ago.”
Pajcic also announced an amended complaint was filed in the case of Erin and Jonathan Schaeffer, which he said includes more allegations of fraud against Sono Bello.
He said the doctor who performed her surgery in 2024 was not board-certified in cosmetic or plastic surgery. As a result, Erin was left with an infection that required her to be hospitalized, and left her disfigured. Erin said that during her surgery, the anesthesia didn’t work, and she felt everything.
“I felt like I was being skinned alive,” said Erin Schaeffer. “I begged him to stop.”
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We asked Sono Bello for a response. They sent us this statement:
“Every Sono Bello physician is a board-certified or board-eligible surgeon, extensively trained in the procedures we perform. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.
“All Sono Bello surgery centers are fully accredited, state-of-the-art facilities that meet or exceed every state-mandated standard. In Florida, that includes formal admitting agreements with local hospitals in the rare event that a patient requires additional care.
“To date, Sono Bello has helped more than 300,000 patients transform their lives. We have achieved this with a safety record that surpasses published benchmarks, and we take pride in the care and results we deliver.”
Pajcic says that Burgess’s lawsuit has not yet been filed.
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